Cool It! is a brainless game of take that! from the UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists). Update: see comments. Pick cards, play the solutions on yourself until you’ve won, or play problems on others to slow them down.

While they sensibly include more solution cards than problem cards so that the game will eventually terminate, I don’t know what kind of message it sends to kids that a) there are more solutions than problems for our environmentally challenged planet, b) I can solve my problems while trying to stop you from solving yours, and c) applying solutions is both simple and a matter of luck.

3 Comments

I’m sorry you didn’t like the game, but I don’t see the need to be insulting. My experience with students playing the game is that they come away with questions about how the polluting and clean technologies work, especially electric cars and hybrids. That was the goal of the game for us — helping teachers starts a conversation with students about these technologies, practices, etc. Also, students tend to have fun with the game. I have not seen any students come away with conclusions a, b or c as you describe them.

I would prefer to see the game without the colored backgrounds on the cards. In other words, the game shouldn’t simply have you match solution to problem based on card color (which entails no real in-game thinking), but require you to a) identify which problem can be solved with which solution, and b) convince the other players that you are correct. The game would then engender discussion and thinking as part of its goal.

Nevertheless, I have not played the game – and you can say that I shouldn’t really comment until I’ve played it – and if your experiences prove me wrong, more power to you.

Yes, that’s a good idea. Some teachers have required the students to talk out loud like that as they play the game. The game offers teachers some flexibility. One teacher I spoke with doesn’t use it for the game itself, but rather uses the cards as vocabulary builders.